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BMW Motorcycles (aka Beemers) and the Competition Have an interest in BMW motorcycles or just motorcycles in general? Discuss the line of BMW motorcycles and how they may compare to the rest of the competition in this forum!

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Albert Einstein

Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction", Sam Walton.

This reminds me when a rental Japanese import car driven by a New Yorker rear-ended my RED Nissan Titan (basically went under my truck), at a STOP LIGHT, in Downtown L.A., around noon time. When I asked him what happened? He's sorry he didn't see my truck???!!!
The truck sustained minor damage but his rental was a mess! When riding my bike, splitting lanes at the traffic light or anywhere safe is a must.

If you search you will find the general consensus is that there is no portion of the CA motor vehicle code that actually allows lane splitting.
Nor is there any law that forbids it. The fact that the CHP motorcycle cops do it all the time is a bit of an endorsement.

I have both approached and been approached from the rear by CHP motorcycle cops while lane splitting and didn't even get a look from them.
Passing a cruiser in bumper to bumper puts them in a difficult position, even if they wanted to chase you down you are already 40 cars down the road.

Keep in mind any officer of the law has a lot of leeway in defining what constitutes reckless driving, if they write you a ticket for it, you can bet the judge will back them up. So lane splitting at 4x miles an hour in 30 mile an hour highway traffic is one thing. Splitting vehicles at 80 something when the traffic is already moving at (or above) the posted limit is another.

This is going to vary a lot from state to state, just like helmet laws do.

In CA as long as you are not speeding or "driving recklessly" you can pretty much split lanes with impunity.
On the flip side I'd be pulled over (in CA) by the first officer that saw me if I was riding around without a helmet on.

I saw a motorcycle the other day that had flashing LED lights wrapping around the brake lights. When the bike would brake, the brake light would go on (of course) followed by the flashing LED's. Although annoying to be behind, they do work to get the attention of the drivers behind you.

Also motorcycles can legally use the carpool lanes 24/7 in California.

+1, another question, how is it that motorcyclists don't fall over when they go around sharp turns and are about parallel with the ground? That's super neat how they do that, but I've always wondered how they don't fall, their knees touch the ground

+1, another question, how is it that motorcyclists don't fall over when they go around sharp turns and are about parallel with the ground? That's super neat how they do that, but I've always wondered how they don't fall, their knees touch the ground

this pic was posted a while back on a motorcycle forum i'm on. if i remeber correctly, the guy survied, i think he end up in back of the bed of the truck. it was a 21 yr old woman driving.
we titled the pic. gm makes motorcycle stand.

+1, another question, how is it that motorcyclists don't fall over when they go around sharp turns and are about parallel with the ground? That's super neat how they do that, but I've always wondered how they don't fall, their knees touch the ground

A motorcycle has to lean to the inside of a corner to compensate for the centrifugal force that wants to keep the bike going straight.

The faster the bike goes, respectively, the tigher the turn, the more the bike has to lean to go around the corner.

The bike can only lean so much before bits of it start to scrape the road. Also, if you look at a motorcycle tire's, they are not flat like a car, but more rounded. After a certain degree of lean, you are no longer using the whole tire contact patch.

So to go faster still around the same corner, fast riders actually transfer the bike's center of gravity by moving their body weight from the top of the motorcycle to the inside of the corner. The centrifugal force keeps the bike from falling inside the turn. This allows riders to keep the bike MORE upright, thus better ground clearance and tire contact. Their knees may scrape the ground, but the weight of the bike is not on them.

They could not do it below a certain speed, the bike would just tip on the inside.